Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens have proposed amendments to both sections 79A and existing section 79 to require agencies—I think, as Senator Ludlam has outlined—in respect of interception warrant information and all network owners in relation to network protection information to destroy records and copies of records about intercepted information. If I could remind Senator Ludlam, the interception act was amended in 2000, I think before his time, to remove copies of restricted records from the recordkeeping and destruction requirements. Those amendments were proposed by the previous government but they emanated from an inquiry that was conducted by Mr Peter Ford.

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The basic tenet, when Mr Peter Ford reviewed this issue in 1999, was that the requirement to track and destroy copies was a costly record-keeping obligation but, more pertinently, did not result in any public benefit. Consequently, the Interception Act was amended in 2000 to remove copies of restricted records from the record-keeping and destruction requirements. The destruction process is not set out in the Interception Act due to the different record-keeping processes of each organisation. However, I think it is fair to add that it is expected that the methods used would be appropriate for the sensitive nature of information accessed under the network protection provisions. Of course, those amendments were made following those to the legislation. The government’s amendments have been drafted in accordance with this finding by the Ford inquiry and any variation to either section would need to be considered in a far wider context in the consideration of that provision itself. The debate would range across issues outside the scope even of this particular bill. The rationale is still sound and the Ford review findings remain sound. It is expected, as I have indicated, that the methods used would be appropriate for the sensitive nature of the information accessed under the network provisions for those organisations to maintain confidentiality for those records.